Among the Royal Pavilion & Museum’s collections is a group of paintings and sculpture by the artist Glyn Philpot (1884-1937), who had a modernising impact on portraiture. The exhibition explores aspects of his life including his relationship with Henry Thomas and his patrons and his hope to reconcile religious imagery with the contemporary.

This exhibition began with donations from Brighton’s trans community and is now the largest collection represening trans people in the country and possibly the world. Containing artefacts and photographic portraiture, the display challenges the idea that gender is fixed. It also launches Be Bold, a series of collaborative exhibitions and events.

The fan, a fashion accessory often forgotten, is put in the spotlight in this exhibition. The museum has selected fans from its collection to explore the art, language and craftsmanship of the fan interposed with items from the collection that reflect the period in which each fan was used. “We will be exploring the imagery of the fans, how they mirrored fine art of the time as well as looking into the language of fans and how they were used as means of communicating between people, the political propaganda they represented and fans that were used for advertising, dating back to the early 1700s,” explains Gerry Connolly, the museum’s senior curator. Picture: Ivory and pique fan with painted velum leaf featuring the three magi, c1700.

Kim Lovelace runs this Qigong class, which consists of two 80-minute sessions with a short interval. The translation of Qigong equates to Life Force Cultivation, and its movements and postures are incorporated into many aspects of physical and spiritual wellness activities. Booking is essential.

Mondays and Wednesdays January 8-March 28, 6.30pm-8.30pm on Mondays and 10am-12noon on Wednesdays

Tickets £12 per session. Age 16+

This informal class drawing the human form is led by Rachel Cowell of Ginger Moo. The classes focus on learning and experimenting with new materials and gaining new skills. Bring your own drawing materials.

Usual admission charges applyThis major exhibition explores the life and work of the 20th century artist Gluck (1895-1978) who is now recognised as a trailblazer of gender fluidity. Born Hannah Gluckstein into a wealthy Jewish family, Gluck attended art school in London and ran away to Cornwall with fellow students during the First World War. The artist mixed with the Newlyn School of painters and adopted the name Gluck, creating a controversial masculine identity incorporating men’s tailoring, barber-cut short hair and a mannish demeanour. Gluck, who demanded ‘no prefix, suffix, or quotes’, became well known as a painter. Portraits, land and seascapes and floral paintings are all included in this show, along with clothing, accessories, photographs, press cuttings and personal ephemera.The exhibition is part of Wear it Out, a partnership with The Centre for Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London funded by Heritage Lottery Fund. Picture above: Gluck c 1932/Howard Coster Fine Arts Society. Picture below: Gluck, Lords and Ladies, detail, 1936.

Learn and perfect traditional methods of bookbinding, repair and conservation under the guidance of The Keep’s conservator Melissa Williams. Participants can choose their project, from repairing your own books to creating something new, and there’s an opportunity to try anything from a simple case-binding to more sophisticated stitching designs and finishes, such as gold-leaf tooling. Suitable for beginners or those with more advanced skills. A toolkit can be purchased for £25. Bring your own lunch.

This nine-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course uses simple meditation practices to help participants become more present to their experience and manage thoughts, emotions and body sensations more effectively. Participants will learn to cultivate awareness, develop more helpful responses to stress and simple mediation practices that can transform daily life. The course, led by Ed Halliwell, begins with an orientation session, has a break week on March 10 and includes a six-hour day retreat on Sunday February 25.

This eight-week course, run by Alistair Appleton, looks at the simple yet profound practice of immediacy – or simply “being”. It explores ways to help people step into a reality that is alive, unpredictable, vivid and ever changing, and helps people to live in that reality in a way that focuses on others rather than themselves.

Thursday January 18, Tuesday February 13, Saturday March 17, Friday April 13, Thursday May 31 and Saturday July 7, 10am-4.30pm

£70

Professional artist and presentation specialist Lynne Friel teaches how to use straightforward bookbinding and leather working skills to make two unique journals. In the morning, participants will master the basic skills by making a single A6 book, and in the afternoon they will make an A5 journal with space for pens or pencils. All materials are included in the price.

Tuesdays January 23 and 30, February 6, 20 and 27, and March 6, 13 and 20, all 4.15pm

Age 10-12

This 10-week course, led by Joy Forsyth and run by Theatre Arts South, is aimed at youngsters interested in finding out more about theatre, including performing, writing, directing, designing and stage management. No experience is necessary.

Learn how to keep bees on a small scale on this course, run by Wayward Bee, which explains how a hive works, how to keep bees happy and healthy, what type of hive, where to site a hive, swarming, equipment, costs and plants for the bees.

Run by Ann Till at South Downs Quilt Workshops, this eight-part course introduces the basics of patchwork and quilting, with an emphasis on the learning of the techniques rather than the end product. Using a sewing machine, participants will look at new blocks, colour choices, different cutting techniques and other aspects of the construction process.

This nine-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course uses simple meditation practices to help participants become more present to their experience and manage thoughts, emotions and body sensations more effectively. Participants will learn to cultivate awareness, develop more helpful responses to stress and simple mediation practices that can transform daily life. The course, led by Ed Halliwell, begins with an orientation session and includes a six-hour day retreat on Sunday March 18.

This nine-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course uses simple meditation practices to help participants become more present to their experience and manage thoughts, emotions and body sensations more effectively. Participants will learn to cultivate awareness, develop more helpful responses to stress and simple mediation practices that can transform daily life. The course, led by Ed Halliwell, begins with an orientation session and includes a six-hour day retreat on Sunday March 18.

Saturdays February 3, April 7, June9, October 6 and December 1 (one-day course), 10am-3.30pm

£25

Tutor Tricia Johnson, of Art With Trica, gives one-to-one support as she teaches a one-day course suitable for beginners through to advanced students. There will be advice on drawing and measuring techniques, as well as exploring different art forms.

Sharon Knox, of Hot Fusion Glass, runs these one-day taster courses to learn the craft of fused glass, which has been fired in a kiln at high temperatures. Methods involve stacking or layering thin sheets, rods and powders of glass, sometimes using different colours to create patterns or images. The stack is placed inside the kiln until the separate pieces bond. The unique shapes created can then be crafted into anything from jewellery to wall art. All glass materials, breakfast, lunch and drinks are included in the price.

Around 100 gardens in the National Garden Scheme are opening as part of its Snowdrop Festival and Pembury House is one of them. Its two-acre country garden, with winding paths, has snowdrops and hellebores and visitors can enjoy views of the South Downs National Park.

Natural Selection marks the culmination of a five-year collaboration between artist Andy Holden and his father, the ornithologist Peter Holden. Their collaborative work takes us on an ornithological journey: from the building of nests to the collecting of eggs. Featuring objects, sculptures, videos and animation, the exhibition has been conceived to celebrate an astonishing diversity of natural forms and embrace different ways of looking. Picture: Alison Bettles.

Caroline Achaintre’s visually striking, witty ceramic sculptures and hand-tufted wall hangings incorporate diverse references such as catwalk fashion, carnival, and death-metal iconography, as well as Primitivism and Expressionism – early 20th century Western art movements that borrowed heavily from non-Western and prehistoric imagery to find new ways of representing the modern world. Picture: Rob Harris.

Throughout autumn last year, Awosile engaged Thornwood Care Home staff and residents living with dementia in conversation and shared creative activities. From this series of social interventions, she developed a collection of digitally embroidered fabrics inspired by her encounters and the site. Awosile tests how craft innovation might help to bridge the gap between a younger generation of digital natives and those brought up before the digital age – people who might be more familiar with hand-crafted techniques. Awosile used the architecture of the De La Warr Pavilion to create an arrangement of textile objects that explore moments of re-discovery and unfamiliarity. Garment silhouettes embody personal dialogues that, in turn, create opportunities for social exchange, touching on the silent interplay between public and private space. Picture: Rob Harris.

Hove Museum & Art Gallery, 19 New Church Road, Hove
Until Tuesday September 4, 10am-5pmFree admission
Popular children’s writer and illustrator Aaron Blecha reveals the tricks of his trade in this fun display. The Hove-based creator is best-known for books like Goodnight, Grizzle Grump! and the Shark School series and in this display will give museum visitors a peek into the process behind his work – starting from initial ideas and doodles to creating characters and finished books. Picture: Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove.

Hair, the groundbreaking tribal rock musical of the late 1960s, is a product of the hippy counterculture and sexual revolution. Set in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1968, as the Vietnam War is sucking the lifeblood out of America’s young men, a group of flower power children a fighting a peaceful revolution in a war-hungry world. Based on the book and lyrics of James Rado and Gerome Ragni, Hair is performed by Brighton Theatre Group.

Based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner is a haunting tale of friendship spanning cultures and continents set in Afghanistan, a divided country on the verge of war. Two childhood friends are about to be torn apart when a terrible incident shatters their lives forever. This theatrical tour-de-force comes to Crawley following a run in the West End.

Award-winning Shakespearean actor Emily Carding and a cast of local professionals perform an innovative, intimate, immediate interpretation of Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. It is produced by new local theatre company Theatre Nation.

Thursday-Saturday February 22-24, 7.30pm with a 2.30pm matinee on Saturday

Tickets £14/concs £12/NUS £8

Students of Musical Theatre and Arts Development at the University of Chichester stage a musical comedy about a group of nuns desperately trying to raise money after finding themselves in a strange situation. After 52 of them die mysteriously, they’ve raised enough money to bury 48, but that still leaves four bodies in the cook’s freezer. They stage a show to raise more funds – but will the inspector find out? This is a fundraiser for the Regis Centre.

1935 brings together a series of events that took place in and around the vicinity of the De La Warr Pavilion, the year the building opened to the public. The De La Warr Pavilion is an architectural manifestation of a progressive social movement invested in providing the best art and culture for all. It was commissioned by the 9th Earl De La Warr, then Mayor of Bexhill, and designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff. This exhibition takes that year as a starting point, using local events to indicate the varied social and political landscape of the time. Picture: Arthur Spray, the mysterious cobbler of Bexhill, curing Alice of her headache, 1935. Photographer unknown.

Saturdays February 24, March 24, April 21, May 19, June 23, October 20, November 17

£225

Have a mini art holiday and learn to paint in a weekend on these two-day courses run by Arty Party Breaks. Suitable for beginners or intermediates in watercolour painting, participants will be shown from scratch how to stretch paper, apply paint, mix colour and all watercolour techniques. Improvers can expand their knowledge and learn new ideas, tips and techniques.

It’s shucking time again. More than 30 restaurants in Rye are putting together scallop dishes in preparation for this year’s Rye Bay Scallop Week, an opportunity to indulge in seafood delights. The most popular ingredient this year is chorizo, with garlic, coriander, lemon and chilli also being paired with scallops. Among the events during the week are tasting events, cookery schools and demonstrations, plus live music. Picture: scallops at the Flackley Ash Hotel, Peasmarsh.

Together and separately, Guimarães and Akhøj explore the residual histories of art, design and architecture, exposing unexpected connections between states of rapture and modernity. Much of their recent work has emerged from research undertaken in the small Brazilian town of Palmelo, many of whose inhabitants are Spiritist mediums. Presented in the UK for the first time, Studies for A Minor History of Trembling Matter(2017) and Captain Gervasio’s Family (2014) are both set within this community. These films sit alongside Guimaraes’ film Canoas(2010), set in the home that architect Oscar Neimeyer built for himself outside Rio de Janeiro, and Akhøj’sWelcome (to the Teknival), 2009-17, a response to the restoration of Eileen Gray’s modernist villa e.1027. This is the artists’ first exhibition in a UK public institution. Picture: Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj, Studies for A Minor History of Trembling Matter2017, 30:28 minutes, video, colour, four channel sound, Portuguese with English subtitles. Courtesy of the artists and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, and Ellen De Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam.

Tickets £29 or £26 in advance/concs £27 or £24 in advance/group 10+ £24

Bringing a 12-hour marathon of jive, swing and rock ’n’ roll will be The Jive Aces, Mike Sanchez & The Portions, The Class of ’58, Aisha Khan & Her Rajahs and Bamboozle, plus DJs Mouse, Terry Elliott and Jivin’ Man. And there will be vintage stalls.

Saturdays February 24, March 17, April 21, May 12, June 16, July 14, September 15, October 6 and November 10 (two days), 9.30am-4.30pm

£198

On this intensive two-day course, tutors Amanda Millar, an ecologist and qualified beekeeper, and beekeepers Mike Cullen and Jill Sales get you started with beekeeping, explaining about the honey bee, choosing hives and equipment, how and where to set up an apiary, bee management, pests and diseases, and how to extract honey. The course includes a chance to see the different equipment available, with course notes to take home and an inspection of a hive, weather permitting.

With tutor David Lilly, who has his own stained glass studio and rests windows and Tiffany-style lamps, students handcraft a leaded stained glass window panel. He teaches the traditional techniques of cutting, leading up, soldering, cementing and polishing. An artisan lunch, tea and coffees and all tools and materials are included in the cost. Suitable for all levels. Wear old clothes and sturdy shoes. Picture: Epha J Roe.

Visitors can meet the beachfront hotel’s dedicated wedding team and see a range of tables dressed with a selection of themes and ideas. It’s a chance to give couples ideas for how the family-owned hotel, built in 1928 and refurbished and extended in early 2017, can be set for a wedding. With a complimentary goodie bag for registering couples and tea, coffee and patisserie.

A major event on the world tattoo calendar, the annual Brighton Tattoo Convention features more than 300 world class tattooists, scores of traders and exhibitions, attracting thousands of visitors. This year, there will be parties, collaborations and presentations.

In these new monthly workshops, young people can learn how to create their own animations and Gifs and help bring museum objects to life. They can use their own smartphone or use the equipment provided. The drop-in workshops are run with Brighton Youth Film Festival and Sheepfilms.

Opera superstars Sonya Yoncheva and Michael Fabiano play the heartbreaking couple in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Puccini’s opera. Poverty-stricken poet Rodolfo meets Mimi and falls in love. But Mimi is ill, Rodolfo is jealous and their romance is doomed.

50 Years of Bowie is a new stage show that takes Bowie fans through the singer’s multiple personas, including Starman, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. It takes its audience from A-Z – Absolute Beginners to Ziggy – as his greatest hits and tracks from his albums are performed.

Nearly Dan are on their 21st anniversary tour, paying homage to the Dan fans dying to hear the band’s meticulously crafted grooves and allusive lyrical style of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. They promise all the favourites with track from Countdown To Ecstasy, The Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho.

Guest conductor Vasily Petrenko (pictured) conducts Rimsky-Korsakov’s classic Sheherezade, a retelling of the Thousand and One Nights in music, by the London Philharmonic Orchestra as part of its 2017/18 season. The programme also includes rising star Albrecht Menzel performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Hector Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict, his transformation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing into a romantic comedy.

Comedy king Reginald D Hunter has extended his tour Some People v Reginald D Hunter due to popular demand. Known on TV for appearances on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Have I Got News For You and his BBC2 series Reginald D Hunter’s Songs of the South, he has had a sellout Edinburgh Festival Fringe season, a critically acclaimed tour of the UK and Ireland, and has performed across Europe in the past year.

West End star John Barr takes on the role of Lionel Bart, the songwriting genius behind musicals including Oliver!, film scores and chart hits. This musical play tells the story of the meteoric rise and fall of Bart, from the East End of London, who was earning the same as the average man in the 1960s until he was declared bankrupt in 1972. John Barr is joined by a band to perform some of Bart’s best-known hits, plus a few little known songs too.

Dr Phil Hammond, an NHS doctor working in chronic fatigue, an investigative journalist for satirical magazine Private Eye and a BBC radio presenter, comedian and author, explores how to live and die well, how to survive the NHS and how to help it survive.

This launch party for the new electronic/synth-pop/vocal album release by Matthew Callow features the premiere of the Neon Moon video project, which was inspired by the early French cinematography by George Melies (contains male nudity). Guest musician Greg Isaacson will perform and there will be support from Paul Diello. Proceeds will be donated to MindOut, Brighton’s GBLTQ mental health charity.

If you’re a Soul Man, a Natural Woman or a Sex Machine, this show is for you. This soul train takes yo on a journey through soul from its 60s origins to the present day via classics including RESPECT, Ain’t Nobody, Knock On Wood, Midnight Hour, I Feel Good, Best Of My Love and more, performed by a cast of singers and musicians.